A west-side park Highland
A hillside park on the west side of Highland
Beacon Hill Park, and the free hillside on the west side
A city park at 5959 West Beacon Hill Boulevard, at the base of Hog Hollow Canyon, with an open field, a short loop path, a parking lot at the top and a wide view over Utah Valley and Utah Lake. The reason most people come is the free disc golf, a 27 basket course that is the best free hour in town. Here is what is in the park, how the seasons change it, where you park, and how the field gets reserved.
By Scott Buehler, Moving Utah
Updated October 2026
Start here
A hillside park at the mouth of a canyon, and the best free hour in Highland
Beacon Hill Park is a city park on the far west side of Highland, at 5959 West Beacon Hill Boulevard, at the base of Hog Hollow Canyon. The thing most people come for is the free disc golf, a 27 basket course that runs across the whole park, but around it sit an open field used for soccer and free play, a short loop path for walkers and joggers, a parking lot at the top, and a view over the whole of Utah Valley and Utah Lake. It is free to play and free to park.
The ground is what makes it. This is a park of open grass, a usually dry creek and low bluffs rather than a flat playing field, and it climbs enough that a full disc golf round is genuine exercise, roughly two miles of walking with about ten floors of up and down. The lower half is open lawn. The upper half rises toward the canyon, and the wind coming down off the Suncrest saddle is a regular part of a round up top.
The park is open year round and the disc golf plays in every month, which is unusual and genuinely good. The one seasonal catch is water: the drinking water and the restrooms are turned off from October through April, so a cold weather visit is one you carry supplies for. Dogs are welcome.
The park in numbers
27
disc golf baskets, an 18 hole course plus a nine hole putting course
Free
to play, and free to park at the top of the site
Year round
the field and both courses are open in every month
Oct to Apr
the months the water and restrooms are turned off
The disc golf course
Twenty seven baskets, and three different afternoons
The signature feature of the park is a free 27 basket course: an 18 hole main course that splits into two very different halves, plus a nine hole putting course by the parking lot. Choosing between them is most of the decision here, because one of them takes twenty minutes and one takes two hours on a hill.
| The front nine | The Outback Nine | The putting course | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What the ground is | Open grass, with the park's own lawn in play on most holes | Scrub oak, ravine and open park, wooded and technical with clear fairways | A short green just off the parking lot, behind the large map |
| What it asks of you | Distance and a straight line, with room to be wrong | Shot shape and a willingness to walk down into things | Nothing but a putter and twenty minutes |
| Access underfoot | Paved walkways alongside, which makes it the easier half to walk | No paved access; this is the steep, rough side of the park | Flat, and about as close to the car as a course gets |
| Par | Part of the par 54 total on the long layout | Part of the same total; the fifth is the course's only par four | Every hole a par two, nine holes |
| Who it suits | A first round here, and anybody learning the course | A player who has already lost a disc on the front nine | Anybody with twenty minutes and a view to look at |
| The view | Across the park and out west | Into the trees; the ground closes in | Out over Utah Valley, the lake and the ranges around Highland and Alpine |
Baskets rotate monthly on many holes, and the club reworked the layout in 2025, so the map board at the park is the current word rather than a printed card or an older scorecard app.
The two tees to a basket arrangement is worth understanding before you start rather than halfway round. Red is the short tee and blue is the long one, they share the same basket and the same hole number, and the pairing means a group of mixed ability can play the same course at the same time without anybody pretending. It also means the played length depends entirely on which set you throw from. The long layout runs about 5,147 feet, most holes between roughly 200 and 380 feet.
The monthly basket rotation is the local quirk, and it catches visitors who have looked the course up. Many holes move, which keeps a course this size interesting for the people who play it weekly, and it makes a score meaningless across months. Read the board by the putting green before you write anything down. Heavier, more stable discs help on the upper holes, where the wind comes down off the Suncrest saddle.
The field, the path and the view
There is more here than a round of disc golf
The lower half of the park is a large open field, mown and level, used for soccer and casual play. It is the same open grass the front nine of the disc golf course crosses, so on a quiet weekday you can kick a ball on one end while a group throws on the other, and on a booked weekend the field carries an organized game. A short loop path runs the edge of the park, the kind walkers, joggers and kids on bikes use for a lap without leaving the grass.
The setting is the reason to climb to the top. Beacon Hill sits at the mouth of Hog Hollow Canyon on Highland's open western bench, with a usually dry creek and a few low bluffs breaking up the ground. From the parking lot and the putting green at the top, the view opens out over Utah Valley, Utah Lake and the ranges around Highland and Alpine. It is the same wide, unbroken bench that gives this side of the city its long sightlines, and it is worth the drive out even if you never throw a disc.
Two things to plan for. The upper park is exposed, so the wind that funnels down off the Suncrest saddle is a real presence on a breezy afternoon. And the climb is genuine: the park has real slope from the field at the bottom to the canyon mouth at the top, which is what makes a full round feel like exercise and what makes the view worth the walk.
Who keeps the course
A city park with a club's course laid over it
Highland owns the park, but the course on it was built and is kept up by the local disc golf club rather than out of a parks budget. That one fact explains most of what a visitor notices. The equipment is better than a municipal budget would buy, the layout changes more often than a city would change it, and the person who answers a question about the course is a volunteer rather than a parks officer.
The recent work shows the pattern. A new set of baskets went in in 2026. Seven concrete and fiber tee pads replaced dirt pads in the 2025 round of work, part of a wider revision that moved basket positions and set out a plan for uniform long tee areas. None of it came out of a city budget.
The club also brings a tournament. Its competition runs here across the Friday and Saturday of Highland's celebration at the end of July, which makes that one weekend the busiest the course gets all year. If you are coming to play a quiet round rather than watch, that is the weekend to avoid.
A course good enough to be somebody's weekly round, on ground the city mows, paid for by the people throwing at it.
Parking, seasons and reserving
How to visit, and what the seasons change
Almost none of this costs anything, but the one thing that does, and the one thing the calendar changes, are worth knowing before you drive out to the west edge of the city.
Parking is a free lot at the top of the park, and there is nothing to check in at. The open field is the only part you can hold for yourself: it books through Highland City for organized use, and the city charges a rental fee that depends on the group, with nonprofit and for-profit rates set separately. When the field is not reserved, it and both disc golf courses are open to anyone at no charge, so the reservation only matters if you are the one putting on an event.
For a quiet visit, a weekday morning is the park at its best, and the one weekend to avoid is the end of July, when Highland's celebration puts the disc golf tournament here and the course fills. Spring is the trickiest season to time: the weather turns warm well before the water comes back on, so an April round can feel like summer with nothing to drink at the top.
From October to April there is no water and no restroom at this park, and the field and courses stay open anyway. Beacon Hill is open all twelve months, which is unusual and genuinely good, but the drinking water and the restrooms are shut from October through April. On a site with this much climb that is a real consideration rather than a footnote, especially on a warm spring day when the walk feels like summer and the water is still off. Carry what you need, and plan the stop before you arrive.
Where this sits
The west end of Highland, and what picks up from here
Beacon Hill sits at the far western edge of the city, with the Town Center and Highland Glen at the other end. Here is what is worth reading next.
Halfway back
Mitchell Hollow
A pavilion, a paved loop, a trailhead and the hollow that gave the city's celebration its name.
Read the pageMoving here
A town of acre lots
Why the parcels on this side are the size they are, what the code requires, and the date the district name changes.
Read the pageThe companion
Highland, in full
The pond, the course, the three days in July, the hollow and the code, gathered in one place.
Read the page
Scott Buehler
Moving Utah About Scott
Keep reading
More of Highland on The Local
Things to do
The top 9, ranked
Nine entries on 8.64 square miles, each with its own hours and its own gate.
Read the guideThe pond
Highland Glen Park
A stocked community water, a sand beach with no lifeguard, and a state results page.
Read the guideThree days in high summer
The Highland Fling
Three days, a caber toss, a state hammer title, and a road dip that named the lot.
Read the guideThe hollow
Mitchell Hollow
A pavilion, a paved loop, a second trailhead, and the hill that made cars fly in 1947.
Read the guideMoving here
A town of acre lots
Why the parcels here are large, written from the homestead map and the current code.
Read the guideThe companion
Highland, in full
The pond, the disc golf hill, the three days in July, the hollow and the code behind the lots.
Read the pageQuick answers
The course, answered
A hillside park on Highland's west side, at 5959 West Beacon Hill Boulevard, at the base of Hog Hollow Canyon. Most people come for the free disc golf, a 27 basket layout that is an 18 hole main course plus a separate nine hole putting course, but the park also has an open field used for soccer and free play, a short loop path for walkers and joggers, a parking lot at the top, and a wide view over Utah Valley and Utah Lake. It is free to play and free to park.
On the far west edge of Highland at 5959 West Beacon Hill Boulevard, a short drive from the center of town. The parking lot sits at the top of the site, with the large course map and the nine hole putting course right behind it and the first tee of the main eighteen in sight. It is a city park, so parking is free and there is nothing to check in at.
Yes, both courses. The 18 hole main course and the nine hole putting course, every hole a par two, are free to play with nothing to book and no counter to visit. The park belongs to Highland City, and the course on it was designed, funded and maintained by the local disc golf club rather than out of a parks budget, which is why the equipment is better than most free municipal courses.
Twenty seven baskets in all: an 18 hole main course and a separate nine hole putting course. The main course runs about 5,147 feet on the long layout, most holes between roughly 200 and 380 feet, for a total par of 54 with every hole a par three except the fifth, which is a par four. Every basket has a red short tee and a blue long tee, so the played length depends on which set you use. Allow an hour and a half to two hours for eighteen, because the ground is steep and the walking is real.
Yes, but not all year. The restrooms and the drinking water at this park are turned off from October through April, while the course and the field stay open in every month. On a site with this much climb that matters more than it sounds, especially on a warm spring day in April before the water is back on. Carry what you need for the round.
Yes. The field can be reserved through Highland City for organized use, and the city charges a rental fee that depends on the kind of group, with nonprofit and for-profit rates set separately. Contact Highland City for the current schedule and to book. When it is not reserved, the field and both disc golf courses are open to anyone at no charge.
Yes, on many holes, and the rotation runs monthly. That keeps a single course interesting for the people who play it every week, and it means a score from March does not compare with one from June. The large map board by the putting course carries the current layout and beats any app or printed card. The club also reworked the layout in 2025, moving basket positions across the course.
The front nine and the putting course are. The front plays across open grass with room to be wrong, which is a forgiving place to learn, and the red tees shorten every hole. The Outback Nine is a different thing, wooded and technical on steep ground, and it will cost a beginner discs. The two tee system means a mixed group can genuinely play the same eighteen together, which is the course's best feature.
Yes, dogs are welcome. Keep in mind that the drinking water is off from October through April, so bring water for a dog as well as yourself in the dry months, and expect wind on the exposed upper holes coming down off the Suncrest saddle.
A free hillside, and a real read on the west bench
A visit to the park asks which tees and where the baskets are this month. An address on this side of Highland asks harder questions: what the west bench is zoned for, how the pressurized irrigation works on a lot with real slope, what the Beacon Hill streets back onto, and how the run out to the freeway compares with the east side of the city. Tell me what you are weighing and I will put you with a Utah County partner agent who works this bench, and stay on the file for the financing side.
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